How weather influenced the mood of people during the COVID-19 lockdown in Catalonia: a review of Twitter posts - ASR
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Applied Meteorology and Climatology Proceedings 2020: contributions in the pandemic year
Adv. Sci. Res., 18, 1–5, 2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-1-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
How weather influenced the mood of people during the
COVID-19 lockdown in Catalonia: a review
of Twitter posts
Tomàs Molina1 , Alex Sancliment1 , and Jofre Janué2
1 Department of Applied Physics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
2 Televisió de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Correspondence: Tomàs Molina (tomasmolinabosch@ub.edu)
Received: 14 November 2020 – Revised: 5 January 2021 – Accepted: 6 January 2021 – Published: 29 January 2021
Abstract. This article is the result of a campaign done during the COVID-19 lockdown in Catalonia. The
Television of Catalonia audience was involved in an action to inform about the weather from their own homes by
posting Twitter videos. Some of the videos were shown on air in the weather segment of the television station’s
main news programs. We have correlated participation in the campaign with meteorological and public health
data and found that weather is related to the mood of people when using social media platforms such as Twitter.
1 Introduction day on 10 May. Starting on the first Saturday of May (2 May),
citizens were allowed again to walk in the street by groups of
The pandemic caused by the spread of the new coronavirus ages in the first of several phases of the de-escalation from
SARS-CoV-2 had a strong incidence in Catalonia, an au- the lockdown.
tonomous region in the NE of the Iberian peninsula (Fig. 1). During the lockdown the Catalan public TV (Televisió de
Igualada, one of the biggest cities in central Catalonia, was Catalunya, TV3), a TV channel with two main news pro-
one of the first areas to be placed under lockdown in Europe, grams every day at noon and in the evenings, reached its
days before the total lockdown of the entire country imposed highest audiences in the last decade. The weather segment
by the Spanish authorities from 15 March 2020. The Spanish of 5 min at the end of each news programme had more than
lockdown was one of the strictest in Europe and consisted in 400 000 viewers at its noon edition and 700 000 viewers for
the closure of all non-essential activities, the suspension of its evening edition, according to Kantar media (2021). On
academic activity and the reduction of public transport and 18 March, viewers were encouraged to send short videos ex-
other public services. This lockdown was even more restric- plaining the current weather conditions at home using the
tive during the two weeks starting on 31 March, when the Twitter hashtag “ElTempsdesdecasaTV3”, which translates
Spanish authorities suspended nearly all the remaining activ- to “Weather from home TV3”. Some of the videos were
ities following a surge in COVID-19 incidence. shown on air in the weather segment of the main news. The
After the first case of the virus was identified in Catalo- campaign was a big success and thousands of viewers, most
nia on 25 February and until June, more than 58 000 people of them non-professional weather observers, sent their videos
were diagnosed with the virus, and 12 408 of them died. The from over half of the country’s towns and cities (Fig. 2).
most acute phase of the pandemic in the region was from It is well known that weather influences people’s be-
26 March and 12 April, with over 300 daily deaths, reaching haviour and activity, and plays a role in a person’s mood
a record-high on 30 March with 414 victims. 30 April was (Golder and Macy, 2011; Park et al., 2013). Temperature and
the first day with less than 100 deaths. The combined effect humidity have an influence in depressive moods (Modoni and
of health and lockdown measures with the rise of tempera- Tosi, 2016), with people living under higher temperatures
tures (Tobias and Molina, 2020) at the beginning of May led being less predisposed to depression. During the pandemic
to a decrease in the number of deceased, getting below 50 a lockdown people were forced to stay at home. Studies have
Published by Copernicus Publications.
2 T. Molina et al.: How weather influenced the mood of people during the COVID-19 lockdown in Catalonia
Figure 1. Counties of Catalonia and location of the region in the context of Spain.
shown that Spanish users used social media to inform them- We estimated the average meteorological factors in Cat-
selves and to buy products like nuts, cheese and chocolate, or alonia as the average for Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and
desserts, to improve their mood during this period (Laguna et Girona, the four capital cities of the Catalan provinces; Igual-
al., 2020). It was a difficult time for most. Emergency events, ada, the most affected city during the first weeks of the pan-
and those related to mass coverage, are some of those most demic and located near the centre of Catalonia; and Tortosa
suitable for the use and sharing of information on Twitter and La Seu d’Urgell, two towns representative of the south
(Hughes and Palen, 2009). The total lockdown, with millions and the Pyrenees regions.
of people staying at home, with anger in their present and fu-
ture health security, can be a good case study. 3 Results
2 Data From 18 March to the end of the month there were 1244
videos mentioning the hashtag “ElTempsdesdecasaTV3” on
The Twitter campaign “ElTempsdesdecasaTV3” lasted from Twitter, coming from 382 different locations. April had 3852
18 March until 10 May. The viewers of El Temps, the participations from 626 different locations. The month of
weather segment of TV3, were asked to post short videos May, until 10 May, had 691 videos from 247 locations.
on Twitter about the current weather conditions as seen from With a total of 5787 videos with the hashtag, the average
their own home windows and terraces (following the rules was 107 videos a day, with a maximum of 208 participations
of the lockdown imposed by Spanish authorities). The video on 19 April. The 10 cities with more participation, which in-
was accompanied with a speech about the place, time and clude Barcelona and other highly-populated areas, represent
temperature of the location where the video had been taken. nearly a quarter of the posts (Table 1).
During this period a total of 5787 videos were posted on the Most of the participants made one or two contributions to
social media platform Twitter. We conducted a study of the the campaign, though three participants were responsible for
number of posts per day, the owner of each Twitter account, 267 videos and the 10 most active participants represent a
and the location of each video. tenth of the total number of posts (Table 2).
We collected daily data of cases confirmed from a positive More than half of the municipalities of Catalonia sent at
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and mortality between least one tweet for the campaign, with tweets coming from
18 March and 10 May 2020. Data was provided by the Health 778 different locations. Figure 2 shows the geographical par-
Evaluation and Quality Agency of Catalonia (AQuAS). Daily ticipation distribution along the Twitter campaign. Most pop-
average, minimum and maximum ambient temperature, ab- ulated areas had more participants, while rural areas had less,
solute humidity and solar radiation levels were provided by even none.
the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (MeteoCat).
Adv. Sci. Res., 18, 1–5, 2021 https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-1-2021T. Molina et al.: How weather influenced the mood of people during the COVID-19 lockdown in Catalonia 3
Table 1. Locations with a higher share of the total number of tweets.
Location Tweets Percentage of
total tweets
Barcelona 463 8.0 %
Gavà 151 2.6 %
Lleida 113 2.0 %
Manresa 107 1.9 %
Vic 82 1.4 %
La Llacuna 81 1.4 %
Mataró 73 1.3 %
Porqueres 69 1.2 %
Blanes 63 1.1 %
Tarragona 62 1.0 %
Table 2. Users with a higher share of the total number of tweets.
Location Tweets Percentage of
total tweets
Single user from Gavà 139 2.4 %
Single user from Porqueres 69 1.2 % Figure 2. Spatial distribution of the tweets.
Single user from La Llacuna 59 1.0 %
Single user from Claret 50 0.9 %
Single user from Tossa de Mar 46 0.8 %
Single user from Barcelona 45 0.8 % 5 Conclusions
Single user from Blanes 44 0.8 %
Single user from Parets del Vallès 43 0.7 % The Covid-19 pandemic affected the mood of people in Cat-
Single user from Manresa 42 0.7 %
alonia in many ways: the anger of the increasing number
Single user from Masquefa 41 0.7 %
of infected persons, the number of daily deaths, the sadness
feelings for those who lost beloved ones, and the loneliness
and bewilderment of many families. The lockdown period
4 Discussion forced an entire society to stay at home, with very few dis-
tractions or social interaction.
Figure 3 shows participation, number of cases per day, and
Social media and TV programs, especially news segments,
daily deaths in Catalonia. The number of tweets increased
were – to a large extent – the main source of communication
until mid-April, and after that diminished as the number of
and information from the outside for many. The campaign
cases and daily deaths decreased until the end of the lock-
ElTempsdesdecasaTV3 was a welcomed proposal by people
down period.
at home, to follow what was happening in other places of the
Figure 4 shows participation, mean temperature and mean
country, giving them something to do and to talk about while
solar radiation. Participation in the campaign tends to dimin-
in lockdown.
ish with the increase in temperature and in the amount of
Participation in the campaign had an ascending curve from
solar radiation. It is notable that the days with less solar ra-
the beginning of March until mid-April with winter temper-
diation are those with a significant increase in participation.
atures and few hours of sun. From the second half of the
The maximum participation day, 19 April, with 208 tweets,
month of April, when the mean temperature was over 15 ◦ C
was a day of extensive and heavy precipitation across Cat-
and with the increase in sunlight, the participation tendency
alonia. The five days with more participation were also cor-
changed and suddenly decreased.
related with rainy days, while the 5 d with less participation
Rainy days are sparse in Catalonia, around 80 d a year
were days with no significant weather nor clouds.
or less in most cities. The days with precipitation, those
In a visual comparison with the ratio of incidence cases per
with sudden decrease in solar radiation (Fig. 4), are the days
100 000 population, and county mean temperature (Fig. 5),
with more tweets with videos of the campaign. This shows
we only find that most of the participants came from areas
that weather conditions had an immediate effect on people’s
with more population and in this case with more COVID-19
moods and attitudes, leading to an increase in social media
incidence, and also from coastal areas with warmer tempera-
posts related to the campaign.
tures.
After 2 May people were allowed to go out from their
homes, and participation in the campaign decreased because
https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-1-2021 Adv. Sci. Res., 18, 1–5, 20214 T. Molina et al.: How weather influenced the mood of people during the COVID-19 lockdown in Catalonia Figure 3. Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths and tweets by viewers. Figure 4. Solar radiation, temperature and tweets by viewers. Figure 5. (a) COVID-19 incidence (cases per 100 000 pop.); (b) Mean temperature (◦ C) (Tobias et al., 2021). Adv. Sci. Res., 18, 1–5, 2021 https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-1-2021
T. Molina et al.: How weather influenced the mood of people during the COVID-19 lockdown in Catalonia 5
the mood changed, leading to the suspension of the cam- Hughes, A. L. and Palen, L.: Twitter adoption and use in mass con-
paign. The population did not need any more of the cam- vergence and emergency events, Int. J. Emergency Management,
paign, so it was cancelled. 6, 248–260, https://doi.org/10.1504/IJEM.2009.031564, 2009.
Kantar media: Medición de audiencias, available at: https://www.
kantarmedia.com/es/soluciones/medicion-de-audiencias, last ac-
Data availability. Online dataset published by the Health Evalu- cess: 26 January 2021.
ation and Quality Agency of Catalonia (AQuAS) for the COVID- Laguna, L., Fiszman, S., Puerta, P., Chaya, C., and Tárrega, A.:
19 data. 20 Online dataset published by Catalonia’s Meteorological The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on food priorities. Results
Service (MeteoCat) for the weather data. from a preliminary study using social media and an online sur-
vey with Spanish consumers, Food Qual. Prefer., 86, 104028,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104028, 2020.
Modoni, G. E. and Tosi, D.: Correlation of weather and moods
Author contributions. TM and AS conceived the idea of this pa-
of the Italy residents through an analysis of their tweets, in:
per. AS extracted the Twitter data and JJ extracted the COVID19
2016 IEEE 4th International Conference on Future Internet of
and meteorological data and performed the graphs. TM and AS
Things and Cloud Workshops (FiCloudW), IEEE, 216–219,
wrote the manuscript.
https://doi.org/10.1109/W-FiCloud.2016.53, 2016.
Park, K., Lee, S., Kim, E., Park, M., Park, J., and Cha, M.:
Mood and Weather: Feeling the Heat?, Proceedings of the In-
Competing interests. The authors declare that they have no con- ternational AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 7,
flict of interest. available at: https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/
14451 (last access: 26 January 2021), 2013.
Tobias, A. and Molina, T.: Is temperature reducing the
Special issue statement. This article is part of the special issue transmission of COVID-19, Environ. Res., 186, 109553,
“Applied Meteorology and Climatology Proceedings 2020: contri- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109553, 2020.
butions in the pandemic year”. Tobias, A., Molina, T., Rodrigo, M., and Sáez, M.: Meteorological
factors and incidence of COVID-19 in Catalonia (Spain): A
MultiI-County study, WMO/AGU Meteorological and Envi-
Review statement. This paper was edited by Tanja Cegnar and ronmental Factors in the COVID-19 Pandemic Symposium,
reviewed by Haleh Kootval and one anonymous referee. available at: https://agu.confex.com/agu/COVIDsymp2020/
meetingapp.cgi/Paper/663692 last access: 26 January 2021.
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